Fellowship of the Innocent

In a service he offered in 1970, Martin Cecil said this:

The truth must be seen in the moment, this present moment as it is now, not as it was last year or a thousand years ago or 10,000 years ago. People are always groping around in the past to try to find the truth. They never do, because the only place it is, is in the present. We may know it now in experience now.

The ring of that is very familiar to me as the tone of Martin’s expression. He was always in the now, pointing to something in the now. I have had an interesting experience over the years, presenting at services here at Sunrise Ranch. I have always sought to venture into the now—to bring what is new, what is present, what is relevant now.

Sometimes, after bringing something that felt fresh and original, I would read something from our library, from Uranda or Martin Cecil, and thought, Darn, they already said it!

But more than that, I was delighted by the confirmation that what I had brought forward, while fresh in the moment, was in keeping with the truth they had expressed. The essential principles of truth they presented ring so deeply true for me.

I tell that story because, as I see it, that is how it should be for any of us who are interested in participating in Emissaries of Divine Light. We cannot go back. We cannot relive our relationship with Martin Cecil, or Uranda, or anybody else. We cannot live simply on the basis of our memory, or even our reading of their words, as inspiring as that may be.

We are called to be here, fresh and new in this moment. As we do, something interesting happens. We find that time does not work quite like we thought it did. If you try to live in the past, it does not actually lead you to the past. That is impossible. And it does not lead you to what is alive and true. Whereas if we open in the present moment to the very urge of spirit that wants to come through us—through our heart, through our mind, through the expression of our spirit—we find that we are connecting with something eternal.

And it is the same eternal reality that is present throughout time. So, in that sense, we are connected with the past, though not exactly. We are connected with the Eternal. If anyone, at any time and any place, was connected with the Eternal, we are linked with them. We become part of the body of truth, that body of people who live from Eternity into the present. That is the opportunity we have.

Here is more from Martin:

Man is composed of the dust of the ground, physical substance with mental and emotional capacities, so that the reality of spiritual expression, the expression of the spirit of God, might be in action on earth. When the facilities of man are used for the expression of the spirit of God, they share in a consciousness of oneness with God. In such state there is no separation between man and God; they are one. This is the true state of man.

Hearing such things as an 18-year-old, they were at times somewhat cryptic to me. What is he talking about? It came off as something different from what was generally available in the world in which I lived. And yet, with the vantage point of a few years between my first hearing of Martin and now, what I realize is the universality of what he was saying. Far from being weird or strange, it is simply an expression of what is true.

Oneness is a common theme today. You hear it in many places. The extraordinary thing about the teaching of Uranda and Martin is that they not only spoke of oneness as an ideal. They were seriously into the how-to—the principles that allow an individual to have an actual experience of it.

Oneness can be an actual experience of the Spirit of the Creator, the Spirit of God, moving through oneself. Having grown up in a Unitarian church, that was a foreign concept to me. And yet, over the years, I have come to know that this is exactly the opportunity.

Martin spoke of something else.

A child is relatively innocent anyway, but gradually, as there is growth, the child is initiated into the fraternity of the damned… He begins to experience shame, a sense of shame. This is one of the first things that came upon those who first fell, and it’s the first thing that comes upon a developing young person—the sense of shame.

The fraternity of the damned. Stinging words.

What is that? It is simply the state of those who do not know oneness. They are not living in oneness, not expressing oneness, and therefore not knowing it. And with that state comes shame—the sense that one is naked and must immediately cover up.

Do you remember an experience like that as a child? I do.

I remember an experience of being confronted the adult world. I could only guess at what age I was—maybe something like eight. It was shocking, because what I realized, as it configured in my eight-year-old mind, was that the adults around me were lying. They were lying to each other, and they were lying to me.

They were talking about a false adult reality, a reality that was not real, not substantial, just some social construct. I would not have used those words at the time, but in my child mind it was vivid.

And then I thought, What do I do now?

I remember I called my sister. Martha, Martha, do you see this? What are we going to do?

I do not believe I am the only one. I have heard from others who, in their childhood, had unique experiences of being spiritually connected in the middle of an adult world that was spiritually disconnected. That disconnection creates the fraternity of the damned. Harsh words, perhaps. Stinging words. And yet, if you look around at the world in which we live, there is certainly evidence of it. The point is not to condemn that world. The point is to know what we are bringing into the world now.

We have inherited something precious. Here at Sunrise Ranch, we have an extensive library of the words of Martin Cecil and Uranda that reveal the Eternal from which those words came. We are sitting on a treasure trove of the expression of truth. But ultimately, what redeems us, what gives us a creative experience, is not what was said then. It is what expresses through us now.

In this moment, what are we allowing to continue through ourselves? What is the truth that we know?

The truth that you accept into yourself and express through yourself into the world, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt. Do you want to embrace the truth? Isn’t that how you embrace it? You let it in. You feel it inside yourself. And then you let it out.

We each have the opportunity individually, in our own world, to bring what is true, without fear or favor. If we are not willing to be true to the spirit that wants to be expressed through us, we end up compromising that truth. And then we have nothing. A corrupted truth goes no place.

There is a higher reality in the Eternal that is the standard that gives life. That is where Love lives is in its highest form. Love is not what is written in a book, or what somebody said, or what some church says. The real prize is the living reality of it. And if we are to know oneness, we have to embrace that real thing. And then we have to express it in a world that includes the fraternity of the damned—a world that includes disconnection, shame, falseness, manipulation, and reaction.

Do you think it is possible that the Creator of all, seeing and knowing what is happening on the planet, might be using you and me as an aperture? An aperture to bring an influence into that larger picture? To bring some sanity, perhaps some vertical memory, so that people could feel the vibration of something other than the fraternity of the damned, and connect to it?

In the face of all that, the Spirit of the Creator could be using you, could be using me, to bring something into the world—to your partner or others close to you. Or to your community, country, and ultimately to the world.

If that is really happening, what is important for us to know? What is important to know when life pushes back? What is important to know when you meet the vibration of the fraternity of the damned?

The truth, yes?

In Uranda’s booklet, Lighting the Way in You, he speaks of someone who is in union with the Eternal:

In such a state every “kick” becomes a true “boost,” and the world has no power to hurt in any way.

If you are pushed, you just get boosted into a stronger knowing of the truth that is the reality of who you are and what you are bringing into the world.

Here is another thing for any of us to know: I am not meeting this in my own strength.

You might be tempted to. And it does not mean there are not things for the individual to do. It does not mean there is not the right use of strength. There is. And still, the truth is this: I am not meeting this in my own strength. I am meeting it in the power of the Creator that is within me. And I am allowing that power to come through.

Here is another thing to know: In times of pressure, I hold the line.

In times of pressure, when the world seems to be trying to convince me to fold, to shrivel up, to go hide, I hold the line. And the line is the line of truth. The line is the vibration of Love that I know. I know that this is the rock upon which I stand. And I am identified with that rock. In the face of whatever, I am that rock. I am standing on it. And I am bringing it.

This is the stance of the Fellowship of the Innocent.

Jesus shared the attitude of the Fellowship of the Innocent.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Matthew 6:12

That is the creed of the innocent: forgiveness of it all.

That forgiveness is more than what it looks like. It is not condoning the fraternity of the damned. Whatever mistakes people have made, it is not our job to condone them. Forgiving is not making it okay. And it is not even just saying, I will not hold it against them, and there will be no retribution here.

Forgiveness is far more than that. Where there is forgiveness, we are for-giving. We are giving something into the situation that is not based in reaction, not based in holding something against somebody. We are bringing the power of transformation into that situation and to that person.

Forgiveness is a positive act. It is an act of intercession. It is an act of transformation. It is the unleashing of an inner power.

As long as you are reacting to the fraternity of the damned, you are actually joining it. You may think you are against it. But in your reaction, you are doing what everybody else is doing.

The Fellowship of the Innocent is not doing that. It is not reacting. It is for-giving—for-giving powerfully. For-giving in a way that contains the message: You do not have to keep doing it. And here is your opportunity to do this. Join the Fellowship of the Innocent. Be a forgiving person. Be a positive person, meaning that we are bringing the positive influence of the Creator that we know, and that can come through us.

This is the power of spiritual expression. The power of the truth in expression. Nothing more, nothing less. It is the power of the expression of innocence.

It is uncommon in our world, yes? Everybody is looking for an edge. Everybody is looking for a gimmick. Everybody is looking for some kind of control.

But there is the power of innocence, through which comes the power of the Almighty Spirit—something far larger than we are as a human being. Yet we know oneness with it as we open to it and give it expression.

When we are together in the expression of truth, something moves out to all the vibrational fields with which we are connected, and ultimately to the larger field for which we are responsible, which is the world.

Without fear or favor. Not trying to force a particular result but knowing that what should happen can happen as the expression of Spirit is present with what is happening in the world.

May these things grow among us individually and together. May the Fellowship of the Innocent come into its own. May we know it for ourselves.